98: Growing From Dreams into Reality
9/30/2015
I got Chapter 23: Running Away, done today. It took me three days to do, which is pathetic for only six pages, but I think it turned out well. It’s just another example of how things grow into so much more than I originally conceived. More proof that my little brain lacks the power to bring things together with the nuance and multiple meanings that pen and paper can achieve.
Before sitting down, I only have a vague vision, a list of background details, and a list of devices to include. I know what’s going to happen, why and how it connects with the other chapter. But it remains dead and two-dimensional until I sit down to string it all together with words, breathing life into it with my pen. If I left it to exist only in my head, it wouldn’t even be a shadow of what it’s becoming. It would remain a shifting abstraction with no reality to it at all.
Present-Day Reflection
8/31/2026
This, of course, goes for painting and drawing as well. So, I’m not sure why it should be surprising that it’s true with writing fiction. Holding a vision of something entirely in my head without externalizing it through some medium in the real world will always be severely limiting in its scope. The act of materializing it requires a thoroughness of examination and concrete recording that prevents the loss of detail that occurs when confined to my mind.
It’s the difference between a dream and reality. It all starts with the dream, but things will never grow and fulfill their potential until they become a reality. At which point, they naturally become larger and more nuanced than I could have ever conceived.
